John, it's just a domestic TT. The "means of earthing" is currently awol so I have to do something. Just wondered if using tape was a good idea as I will have some handy trenches.
In some parts of the world - they’d happily dig a big hole and drop in an old engine block.......with a fat bit of cable attached- I wonder how long that’d last for? I’d guess it would rust quite quickly.
im quite a fan of alternatives to rods as I find myself doing a lot of work around the rails - not quite on the rails but there abouts, and network rail have great objections to installing a rod unless it’s “ made up ground”
flat copper tape is also expensive for what it is (here). It is even more expensive than stainless steel ! You can just bury bare wire or those screw together ordinary rods laid sideways.
Burying a galvanised scaff pole in the trench is cheaper and being larger area will make a better electrode with a working life of many decades. The hardest part with something that big is getting a rot proof connection to it. assuming no JCB handy to put a J bend in it to make it inspectable, then big lugs & bolts, and tar or denso tape on any buried joints where different metals meet are probably as good as any. foundation earthing and other structures are also a possible alternatives OR an earth mat if you are rich.
On a safety critical system you might bring up 2 tails so you can ring through to verify that both connections are still good.
Actually for perimeter electrodes round houses, some EU countries require both ends to be available for just such a test.
On their website, this Condudisc is sold as a 'utility pole ground plate'. Hence the two holes and supplied with 2 lag screws and a handful of staples. pdf brochure
There is a training video for installers of Liberty EV charge points that seems to use the same product, or perhaps a UK variant, encased in 'conducrete' which I imagine is similar to Marconite. I note they bury the pad in dry dust of the conducrete and then wet it after the backfill is over the top, which surprised me a bit .
"I have an electricians spade in my van, presumably you all know what an electricians spade is?"
Go on Sparkingchip, what is it? I`m wondering about a 15mm copper pipe (tube) fed from a hosepipe but I might be wrong (I am usually wrong, it`s a sort of gift I have- Much Wrongness of thought)
Rods do have their virtue for getting to deeper soil and being easily thumped in if the soil's helpful. In areas with shallow soil or other things sharing the ground, the buried disc or whatever has its own virtues. My only purpose with this post is to show an impressive and cautionary picture that I couldn't find during discussion some months ago of the added dangers caused by EV-charger earth-rods. I found it again, but still don't remember its source: a conference paper about 10 years ago, I think, about detecting cable damage. It seems to be Singapore in the picture. People know to check with utilities before big excavations, but perhaps that wasn't considered for this bus-shelter rod (to improve the situation with lightning, or make the shelter firmer?). A couple of inches further...
